{"id":4791,"date":"2012-02-07T14:15:18","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T19:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/?p=4791"},"modified":"2024-02-14T10:39:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T15:39:33","slug":"10-ways-to-improve-your-financial-spreadsheets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/blog\/10-ways-to-improve-your-financial-spreadsheets\/","title":{"rendered":"10 ways to improve your financial spreadsheets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Simon Selkrig, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.strategizefm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Strategize Financial Modelling<\/a>, <\/em><em>Montreal, QC, <a href=\"mailto:simon@strategizefm.com\"><em>simon@strategizefm.com<\/em><\/a><em><\/em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Simplify them. Reduce the complexity of the Excel workbook.<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t over engineer your spreadsheet or the formulae; avoid the use of complex formula or macros where possible.<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Error checks. Cross check and cross reference your calculations to ensure they are correct.<\/p>\n<p>4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Logical flow. Ensure there is a methodical flow of information\/inputs, calculations and outputs across the workbook.<\/p>\n<p>5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Avoid a spaghetti soup of external references across the spreadsheet. Try to restrict all external cell referencing to only a few import worksheets.<\/p>\n<p>6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Incorporate a simple user guide in a worksheet. This will assist users of your spreadsheet to leverage its value and the time you spent building it!<\/p>\n<p>7)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Data validation or drop-down boxes. Helps to \u201cbullet-proof\u201d your financial model from users typing in negative values or text strings in a unit volume cell, which is used to compute your gross sales based on units sold.<\/p>\n<p>8)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Avoid hiding rows, columns or worksheets unless clearly stated to users. Instead use the \u201cGroup\u201d feature, which clearly shows spreadsheet users when rows or columns are hidden.<\/p>\n<p>9)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Uniformity. If the spreadsheet has a time series of data, be disciplined and consistent across all worksheets; if the first period is located in column F of the income statement worksheet, make sure this is the case in the balance sheet and cash flow worksheets also.<\/p>\n<p>10) Visually and cosmetically appealing. Ensure the spreadsheet is easy for the user to digest the relevant information, without getting distracted by the fonts or other formats of the cells or worksheets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Simon Selkrig, Strategize Financial Modelling, Montreal, QC, simon@strategizefm.com 1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Simplify them. Reduce the complexity of the Excel workbook. 2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t over engineer your spreadsheet or the formulae; avoid the use of complex formula or macros where possible. 3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Error checks. Cross check and cross reference your calculations to ensure they are correct. 4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Logical flow. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-money-and-finance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}